J. Warner Wallace is a cold-case homicide detective, a missions leader, a church planter, and author of Cold-Case Christianity. As a result of his work with cold cases, Wallace has been featured on numerous television programs including Dateline, FOX News, and Court TV. Wallace’s visual presentations in the courtroom have revolutionized how capital offense trials are presented in Los Angeles County and across the country. A vocal atheist for many years, Wallace is now an apologist for Christianity with a master’s degree in theology and the founder of the Please Convince Me blog and podcast. He and his wife, Susie, have four children and live in southern California.

Throughout my childhood my mom repeatedly admonished, “people don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” Well, apologists are pretty aware that, in general, the church doesn’t care as much about apologetics as it should.

When I woke up this morning to see social media splashed with photos of Justin Bieber holding a copy of the Keller marriage book, I made an uncharacteristic move to take a second look at Justin Bieber. My daughter might sing along to Bieber, but he’s not exactly listed very high on my spotify playlist!

We must begin to separate celebrity from pastoral work. Local church ministry shouldn't be a stepping stone to anything, least of all to fame & fortune. It shouldn't be easier for CNN to get in touch with a pastor than for someone in his own congregation. bit.ly/2Md41Bv

The origin of the concept of falling short of some independent standard of behavior and thinking…requiring us to ask forgiveness from other people we have harmed or offended…in a materialistic Darwinian worldview has no survival-of-the-fittest value…and ascribes to the capacity of material particles and energy a broadly theoretical, God-like potential for creating premeditated end-points such as forgiveness… in the realm of moral reasoning.

Thanks for this list Jim! I followed the link “Slapping down Christians and Creationists”, and discovered “Wretched Radio”! I don’t usually listen to podcasts (data cap), but that was fascinating. It was the first time I heard of Ken Ham. I said a prayer for him, ’cause it sometimes seems that internet trolls know no mercy. There were other things I learned from the show as well. I knew that I am a creationist, but I now know that I am also a “young earth creationist”. I have been for years, I just didn’t know they had a name for it. I’ve just been believing that The Bible says what It means (with perhaps other messages which are revealed to us when we’re ready). Is “Wretched Radio” just an internet podcast, or is it also on the airways somewhere?

The research is clear: One of the best ways to prepare students to sustain their faith throughout college is to force them to answer hard questions. While some apologetics are timeless, it’s vital for churches and parents to monitor the most prominent current questions and challenges Christians face on college campuses today.

If we truly love others, we must tell them the truth—even about their sin. From his expositional series in the book of Galatians, R.C. Sproul explains that proclaiming the gospel is more important than being politically correct.

All these sincere Christians are trying to make sense of the world they see in “natural revelation” while retaining the utmost respect and high regard for the “special revelation” of the Bible. It is an honest and heartfelt endeavor, and I certainly understand their motivation. Any one of these models may be correct; each has virtues and each has liabilities (as does every case I’ve ever worked). Most likely, each model contains some truth and some error. We’ve probably misinterpreted something here or there and only God will be able to correct us when we get home (for many of us this will be one of the first questions we ask Him).

Someone you know is a Mormon—a family member, a coworker, a friend, or a neighbor—and you long to present the truth about Jesus and what God’s Word teaches. But where do you start? How can you convey what’s on your heart in a way that will be well received? Well, there’s a new book by Eric Johnson and Sean McDowell full of practical wisdom to equip you to reach Mormons. It contains a variety of essays from respected scholars, apologists, and pastors—including Sandra Tanner, Robert Bowman, David Geisler, Bill McKeever, Mark Mittelberg, J. Warner Wallace, Lynn Wilder, and others—lays out a variety of creative methods for sharing the gospel effectively.
Frank interview Eric Johnson about this new book. During this interview, you will learn some great tips on how to share the truth with Mormons.

Christians are often accused of taking a “blind leap into the dark.” However, my father Josh set out to disprove the Christian faith historically, but instead found the evidence powerful and convincing. So, when he became a Christian, it wasn’t a blind leap into the dark, but a knowledgeable step into the light. He placed the evidence onto the scales, and in his estimation, it tipped in favor of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, resurrected from the dead. You may be convinced by the evidence. On the other hand, you may find it wanting. But the claim that “faith is blind” simply ignores the biblical and historical evidence. In fact, only someone who hasn’t truly weighed the evidence could make such a claim. If you haven’t considered the evidence yet, maybe now is the time.

How much does the Trinity matter to you? If you found out tomorrow that God is actually only one person instead of three, would your relationship with God feel any different? Would it require a drastic overhaul in the way you think or witness or pray? How much does the Trinity matter to you personally?
How much does the Trinity matter to your church? If you found out tomorrow that your beloved youth pastor had become a staunch modalist—he now insists the Father, Son, and Spirit are actually one person in three manifestations instead of three distinct persons—would your church excommunicate him? Or would that seem like splitting hairs? Is the Athanasian Creed really right to say, “Whoever wishes to be saved must think thus of the Trinity. And whoever rejects this faith will perish everlastingly”? Or is that the overstatement of the millennium?
Judging by the church’s historic creeds, Christians used to think the Trinity is really important. Judging by the honest answers likely given to the questions above, many modern Christians have lost the sense of why it’s so important, even if they’ve retained it in their doctrinal statements.

Teasi Cannon:
The first reason is that they’re just so incredibly wise and quotable! I actually had to dial the quotes way back in editing. Beyond that, I’m always trying to connect people with quality resources to help them grow in their knowledge of God. Now that I’ve experienced how apologetics has helped to not only bolster my faith, but deepen my worship, I wanted to invite readers to join me…subtly. Because my first book was a lay level book written primarily to Christian women about heart issues, I didn’t want to confuse my existing audience by completely switching gears in style and content. But I did want to demonstrate how meaningful and relevant loving God with our minds can be. I purposely tried to broaden my audience in this book and sprinkled in little bits of Christian case-making here and there in hopes that it would pique interest and allay any anti-intellectual bias.

Rev. Kenneth Garrett, DMin, is senior pastor of Grace Church, located in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. For 12-years Ken and his wife Sharon belonged to a high-demand, abusive church whose members lived communally, practicing an overbearing, extreme form of the Christian faith.

The conflict between Atheist Skeptics and Christians is both tense and intense. While a noble few have put aside their emotions in order to engage the other side in a reasonable way, the majority have locked horns in dramatic shows of anger that cloud judgment and obscure any possible nuggets of truth or wisdom that may be worth consideration.

If you are falling in love with the world, and about to exchange the glory of God for the dream of gold, ponder which is worse: waking up with gravel in your mouth, or being handed over to ever deepening perversion? So, we read: “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. . . . God gave them up to dishonorable passions. . . . God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done” (Romans 1:24–28).

With this polarization, and with the more overt hostility toward Christian belief on the rise, Christians have blown the dust off a long-neglected field of study, and it is increasingly on the lips of the most ground-level believer: Christian Apologetics.

“Only those who truly doubt can truly believe” is a quote I sometimes hear attributed to Augustine. Whether he said it or not, it contains a grain of truth. The simple fact is we all doubt. Even someone like me who devours apologetic books like hippies devour kale chips goes through periods of doubt.

The implication being that philosophy is bad or dangerous and that we shouldn’t go chasing after “speculations.” What I want to explore in this article is that this sort of mind set is not only in opposition to the Bible, but that it is crippling the church at large as far as our effectiveness not only to reach out to those who aren’t Christians (as it makes Christianity seem deeply anti-intellectual and irrational when the Bible paints the opposite picture) but also to the overall growth of us as Christians as well. Before we can examine whether the charges stick as far as philosophy being dangerous we need to first briefly examine what we mean by the word philosophy .

In the late '60s, American culture was all abuzz with the rumor, "Paul is Dead." The supposed fatality of the beloved member of The Beatles became a cultural phenomenon, leading many young people to analyze the band's artwork and lyrics for clues. The "fake news" of the day was that Paul McCartney had died, and been replaced by a look-a-like. The gossip finally died down when Paul was interviewed by Life magazine in 1969, and he later poked fun at the rumor himself by titling his 1993 album, "Paul is Live." Thus the tall tale faded into urban legend.

Greg has been scouring the web for apologetics news and insights ever since then. He’s garnered praise from the best in the business. His site, named after the poached egg analogy C. S. Lewis used in his “Trilemma” argument, is the go-to place for finding the best blog posts and book recommendations.

In my experience as a youth pastor, I learned the importance of providing intellectual tools and training. I watched my first graduating class of seniors walk away from Christianity in large percentages before I embraced a Case Making approach with my students. After observing the struggle these seniors experienced, I changed the way I prepared my students…When it comes to equipping Christian students, the evidences for God’s existence, the reliability of the Bible, and the truth of the Christian worldview are the tools we must provide.

I know there are plenty of books on apologetics and worldview that help Christians defend their faith. But we cant learn these answers just to win arguments. That is the way everybody else in the world talks about religion. Christianity has never made converts primarily by winning arguments but rather by capturing hearts.

Don’t settle for a person who isn’t in ardent pursuit of the Father’s heart, and don’t fail to be in daily pursuit of him yourself! Don’t settle for a person who isn’t striving for God’s glory, and make strides in the race towards him yourself! Seek those who will call out sin in your life, help you walk through it, and spur you ever onward towards Christ. These seem rare in the world (the West particularly), but I think that’s often because we mark them off the list for superficial reasons too soon.

Mark 6:3 highlights a few facts. First, James and Jude were Jesus’ brothers. Second, they were both known by the church. If this is the case, then it stands to reason that Jude would identify himself as James’ brother since James was an influential leader in the Jerusalem church. Therefore, Jude the brother of James and Jesus is the most viable candidate to have authored this little book. Jude humbly designated himself only as the brother of James and a servant of Christ rather than elevate himself as Jesus’ brother.

The good news for the not-yet-married is that no one in Christ is single, and no one is married in heaven. We need to anchor our feelings of loneliness and longing in the gospel. If we are in Christ, there’s really nothing single about us. We all know there are intimacies that are — and should be — unique to marriage, but those that matter most really can be experienced in the bride of Christ, his church. A husband or wife may help and provide for you in ways others can’t, but a true, Spirit-filled, persistent, and present brother or sister in faith can care for you in remarkable ways. In Jesus, none are single, no not one.

At the top level, we have the Eye class which, for the sake of simplicity, is composed minimally of a collection of one or more photoreceptors and an optic nerve that transmits images to the visual cortex. (Note the filled diamond shape that represents composition in relationships between whole and part.) The Eye class itself is “abstract” in the sense that it cannot be instantiated itself, but provides the properties needed by all its subclasses that at some level will be instantiated as an eye of some given type. On the second level, we have the Simple and Compound eye types which have an inheritance relationship with the Eye class. This means these two eye types inherit all the properties of the abstract Eye base class, along with its necessary components. These classes are abstract as well. On the third level, we have class objects that inherit all the properties of either the Simple or Compound classes. At this level we still have abstract classes which will have all the properties or components necessary to exist in any given higher animal but require further differentiation at the species level to be properly instantiated.

In this blast from the past, J. Warner discusses a common objection of non-believers and examines three reasons why someone might reject a truth claim. J. Warner also addresses the Rob Bell’s controversial claims about the nature of hell and describes the most important question you can ask your atheist friend.

Believers throughout history would rather lose their life than lose their relationship with Jesus. In this lab, Pastor John reminds us that if we lose everything but gain Christ, we’ve lost nothing. For the study guide, visit https://www.desiringgod.org/labs/fait...

What to pray for this week: God has made us fearfully and wonderfully, and therefore we praise Him with gratitude and awe. And we pray that others, too, will praise Him. 21 Days of Prayer for Life! bit.ly/2CkG6ff pic.twitter.com/EcHT1tQ4Ue

“I grew up and was nurtured in the Reformed tradition, where theological sparring is a spectator sport,” Brian Mattson says . “I participated in the games, honed my wicked tongue (which was all-too-often genuinely wicked), and vanquished many foes.”
Mattson no longer engages in the “heated theological debates of the day” because, he says, “I burned out.” But he recently stepped back into the fray for another fight:
“Why, then, did I just publish a polemical essay in The Calvinist International responding to David Bentley Hart’s doctrine of the (non)resurrection of the flesh?”
It was just over week ago. I had read Hart’s fascinating and dizzying article (regardless of his content, he is supremely talented), and thought that maybe somebody should write a response. It was one of those fleeting thoughts that quickly dissolves into “somebody else will do it.” I’m busy. I’m traveling this week.
On Tuesday I attended a funeral.
As I sat there with tears in my eyes looking at the handsome wooden box wherein the remains of my friend lay—after a rapid and sudden decline—a Christian brother so universally beloved the church building was bursting its capacity, the fire was rekindled.

It’s pretty obvious that Dr. Peter Atkins thinks he’s smarter than everyone else and if you disagree with him you’re “intellectually lazy”. It amazes me how he can’t let others make their points before jumping in to derail them. Interruptions and rabbit trails is how he debates.

When our friends’ long hours of work finally rewarded them with a pile of paid-off college loans, they perched on the edge of the American Dream. A nicer neighborhood beckoned, one with better schools. But, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously observed , “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” To everyone’s amazement, our friends sold their house and headed to Africa. They count the cost in frequent flyer miles.
As it turns out, “convenient” isn’t Jesus’s specialty:
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 17:26–27)
Following him may cost our relationships, our finances, our proximity to family, or our health. And, whatever else we sacrifice, part of the cost of discipleship is geographic.
Should I Stay or Go?
The story of God-followers has always been a story of tents and sandals. We steep in it—the record of sojourners striking out, a homesick people, a homeless King.

"You must determine how to relate to the person with whom you share your faith, for it is up to you to do the work of sharing. But it is up to God to do the heart work and we should rely on him to produce the fruit." -Mike Licona #risenjesus #apologetics pic.twitter.com/Tnh6ifogqD

In each of these sections one item could be added that I have not listed, namely, How do you handle and live with differences? How do you decide what can remain differences without jeopardizing the relationship? So as you deal with each subheading, include that in the discussion.